SERMON LVII.

The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet have I not declined
from thy law.—Ver. 51.

IN these words are—

1. David’s temptation.

2. His constancy and perseverance in his duty notwithstanding
that temptation.

First, In the temptation observe—

1. The persons from whom the temptation did arise, the proud.
The wicked are called so for two reasons:—

[1.] Because either they despise God and contemn his ways, which
is the greatest pride that can fall upon the heart of a reasonable creature: Rom.
i. 30, ‘Haters of God, despiteful, proud.’

[2.] Or else, because they are drunk with worldly felicity. In
the general, scoffing cometh from pride. What is, Prov. iii. 34, ‘He scorneth the
scorners, and giveth grace to the lowly,’ is, James iv. 6, ‘He resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace to the humble.’

2. Observe the kind or nature of the temptation; he was had
in derision. This may be supposed either for dependence on God’s promises, or
for obedience to his precepts. Atheistical men, that wholly look to the pleasing
of the flesh and the interest of the present world, make a mock of both. We have
instances of both in scripture.

[1.] They make a mock of reliance upon God when we are in distress;
think it ridiculous to talk of relief from heaven when earthly power faileth: Ps.
xxii. 7, 8, ‘They laugh me to scorn, saying, He trusted in the Lord.’ The great
promise of Christ’s coming is flouted at by those mockers: 2 Peter iii. 3, 4, ‘There
shall come in the last days mockers, walking after their own lusts, and saying,
Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things
continue as they were from the creation.’ Such scoffers are in all ages, but now
they overflow. These latter times are the dregs of Christianity, in which such kind
of men are more rife than the serious worshippers of Christ. At the first promulgation
of the gospel, while truths were new, and the exercises of Christian religion lively
and serious, and great concord among the professors of the gospel, they were rare
and infrequent. Before men’s senses were benumbed with the frequent experiences
of God’s power, and the customary use of religious duties, and the notions of God
were fresh and active upon their hearts, they were not heard of; but when the profession
of Christianity grew into a form and national interest, and men fell into it by
the chance of their birth rather than their own choice and rational conviction,
the church was pestered with this kind of cattle. But especially are they rife among
us when men are grown weary of the name of Christ, and the ancient severity and
strictness of religion is much lost, and the memory of those miracles and wonderful
effects by which our religion was once confirmed almost worn out; or else questioned
and impugned by subtle wits and men of a prostituted conscience. Therefore now are
many mockers and atheistical spirits everywhere, who ask, ‘Where is the 40
promise of his coming?’ question all, and think that there are none but a few credulous
fools that depend upon the hopes of the gospel.

[2.] Their obedience to his precepts. And so whosoever will be
true to his religion, and live according to his baptismal vow, is set up for a sign
of contradiction to be spoken against. It is supposed the mocking by the heathen
of the Jews is intended in these words, Lam. iv. 15, ‘Depart ye; it is unclean;
depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered.’ The words are somewhat
obscure, but some judicious interpreters understand them of the detestation of the
Jewish religion, their circumcision, their sabbaths, &c. But however that be, certainly
the children of God are often mocked for their strict obedience, as well as their
faith.

3. Observe the degree, greatly. The word noteth continually.
The Septuagint translates it by σφόδρα; the
vulgar Latin by usque valde and usque longe. They derided him with all possible bitterness,
and day by day they had their scoffs for him; so that it was both a grievous and
a perpetual temptation.

Secondly, His constancy and perseverance in the duty; that is
set forth—

1. By the rule in the word, thy law. If we have God’s law
to justify our practice, it is no matter who condemneth it; we have God’s warrant
to set against man’s censure. It must be God’s way wherein we seek to be approved;
otherwise our reproach is justly deserved, if it be for obstinacy in our own fancies.

2. The firmness and strictness of his adherence: I have not
declined. The word signifies either to turn aside or to turn back. Sometimes
it is put for turning aside to the right hand or to the left; as Deut. xvii. 11,
‘Thou shalt not decline from the way which they shall show to thee, to the right
hand or to the left;’ sometimes for turning back: Job xxiii. 11, ‘My feet have held
his steps; his way have I kept, and not declined; neither have I gone back from
the commandment of his lips.’ As it is taken for turning aside, it noteth error
and wandering; as it is taken for turning back, it noteth apostasy and defection.
Now David meaneth that he had neither declined in whole nor in part. Understand
it of his faith: all their scoffs and bitter sarcasms did not discourage him, or
tempt him to forsake his hold, or let go the comfort of the promise. Understand
it of his obedience: he still closely cleaved to God’s way. A declining implieth
an inclining first. Well, then, David did not only keep from open apostasy, but
from declining or turning aside in the least to any hand. Testimonies we have of
his integrity in scripture: 1 Kings xiv. 8, ‘David kept my commandment, and followed
me with all his heart, to do only that which was right in my sight.’ His great blemish
is mentioned elsewhere: 1 Kings xv. 5, ‘David did that which was right in the eyes
of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything which he commanded him all the days
of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.’ However, the derision
of his enemies. made him not to warp.

Doct. That a Christian should not suffer himself to be
flouted out of his religion, either in whole or in part; or no scorn and contempt
cast upon us should draw us from our obedience to God.

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In the managing of it observe—

1. That a holy life is apt to be made a scorn by carnal men.

2. That this, as it is a usual, so it is a grievous temptation.

3. That yet this should not move us either to open defection or
partial declining.

First, That a holy life is apt to be made a scorn by carnal
men, and they that abstain from iniquity are as owls among their neighbours, the
wonder and the reproach of all that are about them. To evidence this, I shall give
you an account of some of the scorns which are cast upon religion, with the reasons
of them.

1. Some of the scorns are these:—

[1.] Seriousness in religion is counted mopishness and melancholy.
When men will not flaunt it and rant it, and please the flesh as others do, but
take time for meditation, and prayer, and praise, then they are mopish.

[2.] Self-denial, when, upon hopes of the world to come, they
grow dead to present interests, and can hazard them for God, and can for sake all
for a naked Christ; the world thinketh this humorous folly. To do all things by
the prescript of the word, and live upon the hopes of an unseen world, is by them
that would accommodate themselves to present interests counted madness.

[3.] Zeal in a good cause is in itself a good thing (Gal. iv.
18, ‘It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing’), but the world
is wont to call good evil. As astronomers call the glorious stars by horrid names,
the serpent, the dragon’s tail, the greater or lesser bear, the dog-star; so the
world is grossly guilty of misnaming. God will not be served in a cold and careless
fashion. See Rom. xii. 11, ζέοντες πνεύματι,
‘fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.’ But this will not suit with that lazy and
dull pace which is called temper and moderation in the world.

[4.] Holy singularity; as Noah was an upright man in a corrupt
age: Gen. vi. 9, ‘Noah walked with God.’ And we are bidden ‘not to conform ourselves
to this world,’ Rom. xii. 2. Now, because they would have none to upbraid them in
their sins, and to part ways, and the number of the godly is fewer, they count it
a factious singularity in them that walk contrary to the course of the world and
the stream of common examples.

[5.] Fervour of devotion and earnest conversing with God in humble
prayers is called imposture and enthusiasm. The world, who are wholly sunk in flesh
and matter, are little acquainted with these elevations and enlargements of the
spirit, think all to be imposture and enthusiasm. And though praying by the Spirit
be a great privilege,—(Jude 20, ‘Praying in the Holy Ghost;’ Rom. viii. 26, ‘Likewise
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for
as we ought; but the Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities with groanings which
cannot be uttered;’ Zech. xii. 10, ‘I will pour upon you the spirit of grace and
of supplication’)—yet it is little relished by them; a flat dead way of praying
suiteth their gust better. Christ compareth the duties of the gospel, fasting, with
prayer in the Spirit, to new wine, which will break old bottles, Mat. ix. 17; but
the duties of the Pharisees to old, dead, and insipid wine; there is no life in
them.

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[6.] Serious speaking of God and heavenly things is, in the phrase
of the world, canting. Indeed, to speak swelling words of vanity, or an unintelligible
jargon, betrayeth religion to scorn; but a pure lip and speech seasoned with salt,
and that holy things should be spoken of in a holy manner, our Lord requireth.

[7.] Faith of the future eternal state is esteemed a fond credulity
by them who affect the vanities of the world, and the honours and pleasures thereof.
They are all for sight and present things, and Christianity inviteth us to things
spiritual and heavenly. Now, to live upon the hopes of an unseen world, and that
to come, they judge it to be but foppery and needless superstition. Thus do poor
creatures, drunk with the delusions of the flesh, judge of the holy things of God.

[8.] The humility of Christians, and their pardoning wrongs and
forgiving injuries, they count to be simplicity or stupidness, though the law of
Christ requireth us to forgive others, as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us.

[9.] Exact walking is scrupulosity and preciseness, and men are
more nice than wise; which is a reproach that reflecteth a mighty contempt upon
God himself, that when he hath made a holy law for the government of the world,
that the obeying of this law should be derided by professed Christians; the scorn
must needs fall on him that made the law, and gave us these commands. If he be too
precise that imperfectly obeyeth God, what will you say of God himself, who commandeth
more than any of us all performeth? Thus the children of God are not only reproached
as hypocrites, but derided as fools; and it is counted as a part of wit and breeding
to droll at the serious practice of godliness, as if religion were but a foppery.

2. The reasons of this are these:—

[1.] Their natural blindness: 1 Cor. ii. 14, ‘The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ They are incompetent
judges: Prov. xxiv. 7, ‘Wisdom is too high for a fool.’ Though by nature we have
lost our light, yet we have not lost our pride: Prov. xxvi. 16, ‘The sluggard is
wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.’ Though their
way in religion be but a sluggish, lazy, and dead course, yet they have a high conceit
of it, and censure all that is contrary, or but a degree removed above it. From
spiritual blindness it is that carnal men judge unrighteously and perversely of
God’s servants, and count zeal and forwardness in religious duties to be but folly
and madness.

[2.] Antipathy and prejudicate malice. The graceless scoff at
the gracious, and the profane at the serious; there is a different course, and that
produceth difference of affections: John xv. 19, ‘The world will love its own, but
because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you:’ and
they manifest their malice and hatred this way by evil-speaking: 1 Peter iv. 4,
‘Speaking evil of you.’

[3.] Want of a closer view. Christians complained in the primitive
times that they were condemned unheard, διὰ τὴν
φήμην, and διὰ τὸ ὄνομα, without
any particular inquiry into their principles and practices. And Tertullian saith,
nolentes auditis, &c.—they would not 43
inquire, because they had a mind to hate. A man riding afar off seeing people dancing,
would think they were mad, till he draws near and observes the harmonious order.
They will not take a nearer view of the regularity of the ways of God, and therefore
scoff at them.

[4.] Because you do by your practice condemn that life that they
affect: John vii. 7, ‘The world hateth me, because I testify that their deeds are
evil:’ Heb. xi. 7, ‘Noah by faith, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned
the world.’ Now they would not have their guilt revived; and therefore, since they
will not come up to others by a religious imitation, they seek to bring others down
to themselves by scoffs, reproaches, and censures.

[5.] They are set awork by Satan, thereby to keep off young beginners,
and to discourage and molest the godly themselves; for bitter words pierce deep
and enter into the very soul.

Secondly, It is a grievous temptation; it is reckoned in
scripture among the persecutions: Gal. iv. 29, ‘As he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so is it now.’ He meaneth those
bitter mockings that Isaac did suffer from Ishmael: Gen. xxi. 9, ‘And Sarah saw
the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.’ When the
wicked mock at our interest in God, shame our confidence, the church complaineth
of it: Ps. cxxiii. 4, ‘We are filled with the scorning of those that are at ease,
and with the contempt of the proud:’ the insinuations of those that live in full
pomp, over the confidence and hope the saints have in God. So we read, Heb. x. 33,
that the servants of God were ‘made a gazing-stock by reproaches and afflictions:’
again, of ‘cruel mockings,’ Heb. xi. 36. It is more grievous when they mock and
persecute at the same time; there is both pain and shame. The parties mocked were
God’s saints; the parties mocking were their persecutors and enemies, which sometimes
proved to be their own brethren, of the same nation, language, kindred, religion.
In short, these mockings issue out of contempt, and tend to the disgrace and dishonour
of the party mocked; they make it their sport to abuse them. David saith, ‘Reproach
hath broken my heart,’ Ps. lxix. 20.

Thirdly, This should not move us either to open defection
or partial declining, for these reasons:—

1. It is one of the usual evils wherewith the people of God are
tempted. Now a Christian should be fortified against obvious and usual evils. Let
no man that is truly religious think that he can escape the mockage and contempt
of the wicked. Jesus Christ him self ‘endured the contradiction of sinners,’ Heb.
xii. 3; and the rather, that we might not wax weary and faint in our minds. This
is a part of his cross, which we must bear after him. The Pharisees derided his
ministry: Luke xvi. 14, ‘The Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these
things, and derided him.’ They flouted at him when he hung on the cross: Mat. xxvii.
39-44, ‘They that passed by him reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou
that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: if thou
be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking
him with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself 44he
cannot save: if he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross,
and we will believe him: he trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will
have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also which were crucified
with him cast the same in his teeth.’ So Acts xvii. 32, ‘Some mocked, and said,
What will this babbler say?’ Well, then, since it is a usual evil which God’s children
have suffered, it should be the less to us. Little can the wicked say if they cannot
scoff, and little can we endure if we cannot abide a bad word. There needs no great
deal ado to advance a man into the chair of the scorner; if they have wickedness
and boldness enough, they may soon let fly.

2. This, as well as other afflictions, are not excepted out of
our resignation to God. We must be content to be mocked and scorned, as well as
to be persecuted and molested. It is mentioned in the beatitudes, Mat. v. 11, ‘Blessed
are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil
falsely against you for my sake.’

3. Railing and calumniating will never prevail with rational and
conscientious men to cause them to change their opinions. To leave the truth because
others rail at it, is to consult with our affections, not out judgments. Solid reasoning
convinceth our judgments, but raillery is to our affections; and a rational conscientious
man is governed by an enlightened mind, not perverse and preposterous affections:
Eph. v. 17, ‘Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.’
Therefore an honest man will not quit truth because others rail; no, he looketh
to his rule and warrant. A man will not be railed out of errors; nay, often they
are the more rooted because ill-confuted.

4. It is the duty of God’s children to justify wisdom: Mat. xi.
19, ‘Wisdom is justified of her children.’ What is it to justify wisdom? Justification
is a relative word, opposed to crimination, so to justify is the work of an advocate;
or to condemnation, so it is the work of a judge. The children of wisdom discharge
both parts; they plead for the ways of God, and exalt them: so much as others deny
them, they value them, esteem them, hold them for good and right. When they are
never so much condemned and despised, the more zealous the saints will be for them:
‘I will yet be more vile.’

5. Carnal men at the same time approve what they seem to condemn;
they hate and fear strictness: Mark vi. 20, ‘Herod feared John, because he was a
just man and an holy, and observed him.’ They scoff at it with their tongues, but
have a fear of it in their consciences; they revile it white they live, but what
mind are they of when they come to die? Then all speak well of a holy life, and
the strictest obedience to the laws of God: Num. xxiii. 10, ‘Let me die the death
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his;’ Mat. xxv. 8, ‘Give us of your
oil, for our lamps are gone out.’ Oh, that they had a little of that holiness and
strictness which they scoffed at whilst they were pursuing their lusts! How will
men desire to die? as carnal and careless sinners, or as mortified saints? Once
more, they approve it in thesi, and condemn it in hypothesi. All the scoffers at godliness with in the
pale of the visible church have the same Bible, baptism, creed, pretend to believe
in the same God and Christ, which they own with 45those whom they oppose.
All the difference is, the one are real Christians, the other are nominal; some
profess at large, the others practise what they profess; the one have a religion
to talk of, the others to live by. Once more, they approve it in the form, but hate
it in the power. A picture of Christ that is drawn by a painter they like, and the
for bidden image of God made by a carver, they will reverence and honour and be
zealous for; but the image of God framed by the Spirit in the hearts of the faithful,
and described in the lives of the heavenly and the sanctified, this they scorn and
scoff at.

6. Their judgment is perverse, not to be stood upon. They count
the children of God foolish and crack-brained. The crimination may be justly retorted;
their way is folly and madness, for they go dancing to their destruction. Though
there be a God by whom and for whom they were made, and from whom they are fallen,
and that they cannot be happy but in returning to him again, yet they carry it so
as if there were no misery but in bodily and worldly things, no happiness but in
pleasing the senses. The beginning, progress, and end of their course is from themselves,
in themselves, and to themselves. They pour out their hearts to inconsiderable toys
and trifles, and will neither admit information of their error, nor reformation
of their practice till death destroy them. They neglect their main business, and
leave it undone, and run up and down, they know not why, like children that follow
a bubble blown out of a shell of soap, till it break and dissolve. Now should those
that are flying from wrath to come, and seeking after God and their happiness, be
discouraged because these mad and merry worldlings scoff at them for their diligent
seriousness? Surely we should deride their derisions and contemn their contempt,
who despise God and Christ and their salvation. Should a wise man be troubled because
madmen rail at him? If they ‘glory in their shame,’ Phil. iii. 19, we must not be
ashamed of our glory, nor ashamed to be found praying rather than sinning. If they
think you fools for preferring heaven before inconsiderable vanities, remember they
can no more judge of these things than a blind man of colours.

7. If some dishonour, others will honour us, who are better able
to judge: Ps. xv. 4, ‘In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth
them that fear the Lord.’ Some have as low an opinion of the world as the carnal
world hath of the certainty of God’s word. They who labour to bring piety and godliness
into a creditable esteem and reputation will pay a hearty honour and respect to
every good and godly man: 2 Cor. vi. 8, 9, ‘By honour and dishonour, by evil report
and good report, as deceivers, yet true; as unknown, yet well known; as dying, but
behold we live; as chastened and not killed;’ contumeliously used by some, and reverently
by others; vilified and contemned, counted deceivers by some, yet owned by others
as faithful dispensers of the truth of God; not esteemed and looked on by some,
by others owned and valued: thus God dispenseth the lot of his servants.

8. A Christian should be satisfied in the approbation of God,
and the honour he puts upon him: John v. 44, ‘How can ye believe, that receive honour
one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?’ If God hath
taken him into his family, and hath put his image upon him, and admitted him into
present communion 46with him, and giveth him the testimony of his Spirit
to assure him of his adoption here, and will hereafter receive him into eternal
glory, this is enough, and more than enough, to counterbalance all the scorn of
the world and the disgrace they would put upon us. If God approve us, should we
be dejected at the scorn of a fool? Is the approbation of the eternal God so small
in our eyes, that everything can weigh it down, and cast the balance with us? Alas!
their scorning and dishonouring is nothing to the honour which God puts upon us.

9. There is a time when the promised crown shall be set upon our
heads, and who will be ashamed then—the scoffer or the serious worshipper of Christ?
God is resolved to honour Christ’s faithful servants: John xii. 26, ‘He that honoureth
me, him shall my Father honour.’ He will honour us at death, that is our private
entrance into heaven; but he will much more honour us publicly, at the day of judgment,
when we shall be owned: Rev. iii. 5, ‘I will confess his name before my Father,
and before his angels:’ and Christ shall be admired for the glory he puts upon a
poor worm: 2 Thes. i. 10, ‘When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and
to be admired in all them that believe.’ The wicked shall be reckoned with, called
to an account by Christ: Jude, 14, 15,
‘The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all,
and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodlily committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him:’ yea, judged by the saints: 1 Cor. vi. 2, ‘Do ye not know
that the saints shall judge the world?’ Ps. xlix. 14, ‘The upright shall have dominion
over them in the morning:’ that is, in the morning of the resurrection the saints
shall be assumed by God to assist in judicature, and shall arise in a glorious manner,
when the earth shall give up her dead. If this be not enough for us to counterbalance
the scorn of the world, we are not Christians.

Use. To persuade us to hold on our course, notwithstanding
all the scorns and reproaches which are cast upon the despised ways of God. Now,
to this end I shall give you some directions.

1. ‘Be sure that you are in God’s way, and that you have his law
to justify your practice, and that you do not make his religion ridiculous by putting
his glorious name upon any foolish fancies of your own. A man that differs from
the rest of Christians had need of a very clear light, that he may honour so much
of Christianity as is owned, and may be able to vindicate his own particular way
wherein he is engaged. The world is loath to own anything of God, and needless dissents
justify their prejudice. I know a Christian is not infallible; besides his general
godly course, he may have his particular slips and errors; yet because the world
is apt to take prejudice, we should not but upon the constraining evidence of conscience,
enter upon any ways of dissent or contest, lest we justify their general hatred
of godliness by our particular error.

2. Take up the ways of God without a bias, and look straight for
ward in a course of godliness: Prov. iv. 25, ‘Let thine eyes look right on, and
thine eyelids straight before thee:’ that is, look not asquint upon any secular
encouragements, but have thine eye to the end of the journey; make God as thy witness,
so thy master and judge.

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3. Take heed of the first declinings. God’s saints may decline
some what in an hour of temptation, and yet be sincere in the main. Now evil is
best stopped in the beginning: Heb. xii. 3, ‘Consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners, lest ye be weary and faint iii your minds.’ Weariness is a lesser, and
fainting a higher degree of deficiency. I am weary before I faint, before the vital
power retireth, and leaveth the outward part senseless.

4. Since the proud scoff, encounter pride with humility. Mocking
is far more grievous to the proud, who stand upon their honour, than to the lowly
and humble. Therefore be not too desirous of the applause of men, especially of
the blind and ungodly world; make no great matter of their contempt, and scorn,
or slander.